Manzanita honey

Flavour and aroma

Aroma

light blossom, warm spice, dry chaparral

Flavour

light caramel, faint clove, clean sugar

Finish

Short and clean, with a faint spice echo.

Intensity

Mild

Sweetness

Sweet

Bitterness

None

Acidity

Moderate

Colour, texture and crystallisation

Colour

Extra white (8-17 mm Pfund)toWhite (17-34 mm Pfund)toExtra light amber (34-50 mm Pfund)

Pale straw, clear and bright.

On setting: Sets to a fine pale cream.

Texture

Runny; Soft set

Crystallisation

Moderate — granulates over a few months

Sets over a few months to a smooth grain, as most Ericaceae honeys do.

Typical composition

Moisture

15–18% (typically 16.5%)

Glucose-to-fructose ratio

0.9–1.1 (typically 1)

pH

3.7–4.4 (typically 4)

These are typical ranges assembled across published work, not measurements of a specific honey. Low moisture, made in the dry cool Californian winter.

What these mean: the sugars and the ratio · moisture · conductivity · how each is measured

Where it comes from

Floral source

Arctostaphylos species, of which California has a very large number. Beekeepers work them interchangeably.

Origins

The Californian chaparral and the Sierra foothills, and into Oregon.

Origin pages

• California
• North America
• Pacific Northwest

Resolved from both directions — origins this honey names, and origins that name it.

Harvest

January to March (northern hemisphere)

A genuine winter flow, and the first real forage of the Californian year.

The bees

The urn-shaped flower is the Ericaceae standard — narrow-mouthed and hanging — and bumblebee queens emerging in a Californian winter are among the first to work it. It feeds the build-up that the almond pollination industry then depends on.

Usual processing

Spun (centrifugally extracted), Coarsely strained, Raw

Usually left for the colony rather than extracted, because taking a winter flow from a colony that is building towards almond pollination is poor practice and expensive.

What to do with it

A delicate honey to be eaten cold. Its interest is seasonal and its quantity is small.

At the tableIn hot drinksDessertsSpreading

Pairings

• Fresh chèvre

  A delicate honey against a young acidic goat cheese, which is a Californian staple plate.

• Green tea

  Mild enough not to bury the leaf.

• Almonds

  The two are separated by weeks in the same landscape — manzanita in January and almond in February — which makes the pairing a small piece of local sequence.

History and traditional use

Californian chaparral is fire-adapted, and manzanita regenerates strongly after burning — which means the honey's availability is tied to a fire cycle that has changed substantially in the last century.

• Manzanita berries were used by several Californian indigenous peoples for a cider-like drink, entirely separately from any honey use.

Traditional use records that people have done something, and for how long. It is not evidence that it works.